The show Top Boy represents the amplification of the delinquent and violent behaviour of Black urban men which is presented by the media. The trailer demonstrates the stereotypical personas of the black urban culture, of which Stuart Hall states as being a representation reducing people to a few characteristics and traits. Mainly associated with the underclass, the media exposes a view of this lifestyle involving the likes of illegal activity such as drugs, weapons and murder with the Black culture which is vividly painted in the Top Boy trailer. The trailer follows an underclass man of Jamaican heritage that is obsessed with ‘being on top’. This idea of being on top is referring to the luxury life that a man of wealth and respected social status is to live through the idea of stereotypes. The vision of luxury is not socially paired with the underclass explaining the complete obsession and desire to be ‘on top’ as it is almost unreachable for the underclass all together.
Throughout the trailer the idea of stereotypical black British culture is exhibited through the costumes, behaviour and lifestyle that the director is presenting. During the first thirty seconds Power is dominated by the character ‘Sully’ he has expressed his power through the repetitive personal pronouns such as ‘ I’ and ‘me’. The pronouns display Sully’s importance in himself demonstrating his leadership expectation of complete respect. The idea that sully only cares about himself is stereotypically associated with his black underclass culture. Society has imprinted the idea that the underclass are selfish and impulsive to get to ‘the top’. Due to their social status of the underclass they are capped and unable to reach ‘the top’ resulting in illegal activity as an alternative way to get to ‘the top’. Here Sully conforms to this stereotype through his selfish nature and obsession with wealth and power. The visual representation of the characters such as their clothing and costumes consists of hoodies, tracksuits, puffer jackets, hats and bandanas all of which amplifies their stereotypical personas in the trailer. The characters fulfill their stereotypical look and visual of what is thought to be the underclass black culture that society has imagined over the course of the last 30 years.
The character Sully starts off demonstrating his power and dominance through the use of verbal intimidation like swearing and slang, all of which is fixated with his stereotypical persona of a black urban man in London.
The media amplifies this same persona in the film ‘attack the block’ which was released in 2011. The idea of the cultivation theory comes to mind as the media’s amplification of this persona in 2011 has had long term effects on the black urban culture in the present day. It can be argued that between the 8 years that attack the block has been in the media, the world of media and society has aligned the reality portrayed in the film, i.e the delinquent behaviour and association with violence and drugs, with the true social reality. The theory argues that the more time people spend living in the media world, the more likely they are to believe that reality in the media sits with social reality in the present day. This simply refers to the idea that the behaviour from the media in the past is seen as the reality of the present day.
